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Health and Social Care Bill published

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH News Release (2007/0328) issued by The Government News Network on 16 November 2007

New measures to enhance patient safety and help support families to stay healthy

A new Bill to enhance patient safety and improve public health was today published by Health Minister Ben Bradshaw.

The Health and Social Care Bill will:

* Establish the Care Quality Commission, a new health and adult social care regulator with tough powers to inspect, investigate and intervene where hospitals are failing to meet safety and quality requirements, including hygiene standards;

* Reform professional regulation to give patients and the public confidence in the care they receive from health professionals. This includes creating a new independent adjudicator to make independent decisions about whether individual health professionals should remain in practice so the public can have full confidence in the transparency and independence of medical regulation, and appointing Responsible Officers to oversee the conduct and performance of doctors at a local level. Some of these proposals have been the result of the recommendations from Lady Justice Smith's work on the Shipman Inquiry;

* Allow for cash grants to be made to pregnant women in the final stage of pregnancy, recognising the importance of a healthy diet and the additional costs expectant mothers face at this time;

* Update existing public health protection legislation to provide a comprehensive set of public health measures to help prevent and control the spread of serious diseases caused by infection and contamination.

The Care Quality Commission will bring together the expertise of the Healthcare Commission, Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission, meaning a more consistent approach to regulation at a time when more and more services are crossing traditional health and social care boundaries. It will reduce the burden of inspection on the frontline reducing the level of duplication and bureaucracy faced by hospitals and care homes as well as creating a level playing field across the public and private sectors.

Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said:

"This Bill will enhance patient safety and help to ensure good quality services for patients and service users. It will establish a new regulator with tough new powers to inspect and take immediate and firm action where needed to protect patients and service users.

"It will also put in place significant reform of professional regulation so that patients can have confidence that the care they receive will be safe, and that where concerns about an individual practitioner do exist, they will be tackled swiftly, fairly and effectively."

Welcoming the publication of the Bill, Martin Green, chief executive of the English Community Care Association, said:

"We welcome the fact that the new regulator will have significant powers
in the field of healthcare. It is our hope that we will see much more of a level playing field between health and social care and a regulator who is sector-neutral and deals equitably with both the public and independent sector."

The Health and Social Care Bill also has a key role in helping families tackle childhood obesity and protecting public health. It includes new plans to provide all parents whose children take part in the National Child Measurement Programme with the results and healthy living advice - helping them make decisions about lifestyle.

Research commissioned by the Department of Health suggests that most parents would like feedback from the programme, as it may be useful for monitoring a child's health, or as an aid to teach families about healthy weight.

The Government will be consulting with parents and working with professional groups and organisations to develop the best system and format for providing feedback to parents.

Ben Bradshaw added:

"Giving parents clear information about their child's weight is important way of engaging with families, and prompting a coversation about healthy lifestyles and weight issues within the home. This change to legislation is not about telling parents what do, or lecturing them on how to raise their children, it is a way of supporting families to be healthy.

"Tackling obesity is a top priority for the Government, and this change is part of our commitment to make the NHS a service that prevents ill health, as well as treating it - a wellbeing service, rather than a sickness service."

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Health and Social Care Bill was introduced to Parliament on 15 November 2007 and published today.

2. The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) is an important element of the Government's work to address the serious and growing problem of childhood obesity.
a. It aims to collect height and weight data on all children in Reception (aged 4-5 years) and Year 6 (aged 10-11 years) in all primary schools in England.
b. This data will inform local planning and delivery of services for children and gather population-level surveillance data to allow analysis of trends in growth patterns and obesity.
c. The National Child Measurement Programme data is protected, and stored safely. Individual children's results will not be shared with school staff or other pupils.

3. The online child height and weight calculator is already available at http://www.directgov.co.uk/childweight.

4. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) will share a child's height and weight information with their parents. The data will be accompanied by information to help parents decide whether their child is a healthy weight or not, tips on healthy living and signposting to follow-up services as necessary. Parents will also be able to feed their child's measurements into a new parent-friendly online healthy weight calculator.

5. It is expected that the changes will come into operation from September 2008, subject to the Parliamentary timetable.